President Donald Trump announced he instructed SpaceX to swiftly return NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS), despite a scheduled return in approximately two months. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed this on X, stating, “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.” He added, “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
This statement created considerable confusion. Firstly, no official confirmation came from NASA or the White House. Trump later corroborated the plan on Truth Social: “I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” he wrote. Neither Musk nor Trump detailed the return plan.
Secondly, NASA already planned Williams and Wilmore's return via SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, originally scheduled for early March but delayed to early April due to issues with the Crew-10 mission. Rumors of further delays for Crew-10 might necessitate using another Crew Dragon for the return.
Williams and Wilmore's extended ISS stay followed their June launch on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner. An extended stay was necessary due to thruster issues. NASA had previously dismissed claims of them being "stranded," emphasizing emergency return options. Wilmore stated, “Things that I can’t control I’m not going to fret over,” and Williams added, “You sort of turn to and just take on the next activity of the day…We’re professionals.”
NASA also disputed the "rescue" mission label. Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said, “I really look at it as a crew rotation mission where we rotate the crews…We just happen to have two crewmembers already there a little early.” Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated in August that politics played no role in the decision to extend their stay. "I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision. It absolutely has nothing to do with it.”